415 Squadron Association
When my mother’s dementia was at its worst during the last two years of her life, she could not reliably recognize me or my sister, but when she was shown these pictures, which she had not seen in a long time, she cried out, “Why, it’s Dugald!” Taking advantage of the lucid moment, I asked her if he was a Corrigan. She replied, “Yes…well, sort of,” and that was as far as we got that day, but I figured if his name was with her into her 96th year, then the man who carried it must have been worth remembering. And so began the sleuthing to learn the rest of his story.
Part II: A Home Far Away
On 10 September 1939, Canada independently declared war on Germany.
Dugald Morrison was not yet old enough in 1939, but he signed up at No. 1 “H” Depot, Toronto, on 15 July 1942 for the Royal Canadian Air Force. He had just turned eighteen. His original service No.was R 173578, the “R” signifying an enlisted rank. He was an AC2 (Aircraftman 2nd class; no insignia). The ID card issued described him as 5’11” tall (but 6’1” in his photo against the measurement wall, presumably in his boots), 175 lbs., blue eyes, light brown hair. His home of record was Port Dalhousie, today part of St. Catharines, where his parents lived at the time. He was about to go far away.
“Three thousand miles across a hunted ocean they came,
wearing on the shoulder of their tunics the treasured name, ‘Canada,”
telling the world of their origin.”
So begin the words of Father J.P. Lardie, Chaplain, RCAF, which are inscribed upon the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, Alberta. Dugald Morrison’s name is on that Wall. It is also on several other Honour Rolls. The one closest to home is where the seeds of research were gathered in 2017.
In the thick Honour Roll book in the lobby of the National Air Force Museum in Trenton, ON, stands this listing:
“MORRISON, DUGALD F/O (P) J 28151. From Dalhousie, Ontario.
Killed in Action July 29/44, age 20. #415 Swordfish Squadron
(Ad metam). Target—Hamburg, Germany. Please see F/O A.G. Stein
for casualty list and flight detail. Flying Officer Pilot Morrison is buried
in the Becklingen War Cemetery, Soltau, Germany
From this, I went step-by-step to learn enough to write the best Remembrance Day story I could.
Step One: The Easy Stuff
Rank: Flying Officer was eight levels above an AC2. I am told that the prefix letter “J” on the new Service No. J 28151 was used for officer class, so Dugald must have been in officer candidate training during the time since his enlistment. Most others on the crew had both J and R Nos.
Dalhousie: Chris Cotton at the NAFM, who is, himself, from Port Dalhousie, is the person who taught me the proper way to say “Dalhousie.” It is “Duh-LOO-see.”. He also assured me Dugald was not from Dalhousie (Mills), ON, out on the eastern border with Quebec, close to Montreal. A man from there would not have enlisted in Toronto, but somebody whose parents lived in Port Dalhousie would. Dugald’s casualty record lists him as “single.”
Step Two: The List
Now we follow the “Please see…” suggestion and search in the book for F/O A.G. Stein. Here is the listing from page 724. (Note: Any typos are part of the original text.)
Step Three: Short History Lesson
The details of the lost flight crew under F/O Pilot Arthur George Stein’s listing are straightforward, but dry, with the bare essentials in military shorthand. I was looking for the personal touch. An on-line search for 415 Squadron yields enough information to read all day for a week! I chose seven of the sites and read the texts in their entirety. Here is a concise history of the 415 in WW II. For readers who want to know more, see Sources at the end.
This is the story of a young Canadian Flying Officer who was killed in action in the skies over Germany during World War II. He is buried far from home beneath a stone which reads:
Flying Officer
D. Morrison
Pilot
Royal Canadian Air Force
29th July 1944 Age 20
“Your memory hallowed
In the land you loved”
The story is both sad and ironic. Find a rocking chair and listen for those notes as you read.
PLANE DOWN
by Mary Lou Walker
F/O DUGALD MORRISON, PILOT, 1924-1944
Part I: The Local Connection
Dugald Morrison was born in 1924 in Sydney, Nova Scotia, the son of George Morrison (1880-1969), a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, an electrical engineer, and his second wife Martha “Mattie” Eleanor Corrigan (1890-1974) of Carrying Place, Ontario. She was a dietician. Given the somewhat insular nature of the Corrigan family, it is a wonder how they ever met, but meet they did, and were married 13 October 1919 in Hastings County. The news was published in “The Standard” of St. Catharines, where George was living, and three days later in Trenton, where the marriage took place. George was 39 and Mattie 28. It was five years before they had Dugald, their only child.
Mattie Corrigan and her five siblings grew up in what is today known as the Miskin-Weller House (see p. 36 in Gunshot and Gleanings) on Narrow Lot 8, Ameliasburgh side of the Carrying Place. Her father was Richard James Miskin Corrigan (1842-1895). Her mother was Gertrude Goebel Corrigan (b. 1855, Germany; d. 1912). Their six children were:
Mary Ethel (1876-1954), unmarried, no issue
Maria (pron. “Mariah”), (1877-1934), unmarried, no issue
William (1881-?, but after Maria), unmarried, no issue
Edith (1883-?), married, no known issue
George B. (1886-1963), unmarried, no issue
Martha “Mattie” Eleanor (1890-1974), married, one child.
As you can see, Dugald was the only child born to any of this branch of the Corrigans, so his birth was a great event for this family.
Note: I am old enough to have known some of the Corrigans personally. If there are errors here, please set me straight with hard facts. However, pay NO attention to the Find-a-Grave postings which show three of these children as their father’s siblings (!!) with spouses and children. Family Search and Trees by Dan are only somewhat better.
George Morrison had one daughter, Flora “Florrie” MacDonald Morrison, with his first wife, Flora MacDonald Kilgour, who was born 20 December 1884 in Old Machar, Scotland and died 8 April 1912 in London.. Young Flora was born in 1912 in Brentford, Middelsex, England. Her mother died when the child was born, and George Morrison emigrated to Canada (maybe to Nova Scotia at first) in 1913, leaving Flora behind with family. She did not come to Canada until 1919, when she was 7 years old. You can see her at age 9 on the 1921 census, living with George (41) and Martha (30) at 89 North St., St. Catharines City, Lincoln Twp. This was about 18 months after her father and Martha were married. Dugald had not yet been born.
In 1931, the Morrisons are at 258 Sheldrake Blvd., Toronto, York Twp. Flora is 19 and a “student of physical culture.” She and her father are Presbyterian. Dugald, birthplace Nova Scotia, is a 7-year-old “public school student.” He and his mother are Roman Catholic. I have not continued to follow Flora in much detail. If she ever married or had children, I find no record of it. She appears to have donated a collection to the St. Catharines Public Library, for there is a picture on-line of “Flora Morrison” taken upon that occasion, but I cannot prove she is the Flora who was Dugald’s half-sister. There seems to be a close family resemblance to him, however. Flora Macdonald Morrison died in Toronto in 1981.
On page 45 of Gunshot and Gleanings, Flora is mentioned as one of the local girls who picked berries for market for Bill Hanthorn at the Carrying Place. In the summers and holidays at the Corrigans is where my mother and her sisters crossed paths with Dugald and Florrie. Here are two pictures of my mother Pauline Buchin, age 11 or 12 , and Dugald, age 7 or 8, on the lawn at his mother’s family home . One of them includes Dugald’s Aunt Maria and his mother, Mattie: